Page "Tonto Apache people" Paragraph 12

The Tonto Apache lived alongside the Wipukepa (“ People from the Foot of the Red Rock ”) and Kewevkapaya, two of the four subgroups of the Yavapai of central and western Arizona.

The Tonto Apache territory stretched from the San Francisco Peaks, East Verde River and Oak Creek Canyon along the Verde River into the Mazatzal Mountains and to the Salt River in the SW and the Tonto Basin in the SE, extending eastwards towards the Little Colorado River in the U. S. state of Arizona.

The Dilzhę ́’ é Apache ( Tonto Apache ) lived usually east of the Verde River ( Tu Cho n ' lin-“ big water running ”, or Tu ' cho nLi ' i ' i-“ big water flowing ”), and most of the Yavapai bands west of it.

The Wipukepa tribal areas in the San Francisco Peaks, along the Upper Verde River, Oak Creek Canyon and Fossil Creek overlapped with those of the Northern Tonto Apache.

Likewise the Kwevkepaya shared hunting and gathering grounds east of the Verde River, along Fossil Creek, East Verde River, Salt River and in the Superstition Mountains, Sierra Ancha and Pinaleno Mountains with Southern Tonto Apache and bands of the San Carlos Apache.

Therefore they formed bilingual mixed-tribal bands, whose members could not be readily distinguished by outsiders ( Americans, Mexicans or Spanish ) except by their languages.

The Apache spoke the Tonto dialect of the Western Apache language ( Ndee biyati ' / Nnee biyati ) and the Yavapai spoke the Yavapai language, a branch of Upland Yuman.

Living together in common rancherias, whether they considered themselves to be Apaches or Yavapais, depended on their “ Mother tongue ” as the origin of the matrilineal society, directed by the mother.

Most of them spoke both languages, and the headman of each band usually had two names, one from each tradition.

The ethnic Europeans referred to the Yavapai and Apache together as Tonto or Tonto Apache.

The peoples raided and warred together against enemy tribes such as the Tohono O ' odham and the Akimel O ' odham.

Scholars cannot tell from records whether the writers of the time, when using the term Tonto Apache, were referring to Yavapai or Apache, or those mixed bands.

In addition, the Europeans often referred to the Wipukepa and Kwevkepaya incorrectly as the Yavapai Apache or Yuma Apache.

To further confusion, the Europeans referred to the Tolkepaya, the southwestern group of Yavapai, and the Hualapai ( who belonged to the Upland Yuma Peoples ) as Yuma Apache or Mohave Apache.